[3] The Merrimac, originally a Federal vessel of wooden construction, was sunk by the Union forces when they abandoned Norfolk.  A Confederate captain, John M. Brooke, raised her, equipped her with a ram, and covered her with boiler plate and railroad rails.  She is called the first ironclad.  While she was being reconstructed John Ericsson was building his Monitor in New York.  The turret was first used on this vessel.  It is worth noting that at the time of the engagement between these two ships the Monitor was not the property of the Federal Government, but belonged to C.S.  Bushnell, of New Haven, who built her at his own expense, in spite of the opposition of the Navy Department of that day.  The Government paid for her long after the fight.  It should also be noted that the Merrimac did not fight under that name, but as a Confederate ship had been rechristened Virginia.  The patriotic action of Mr. Bushnell is recalled by the fact that, only recently, Mr. Godfrey L. Cabot, of Boston, has agreed to furnish funds to build the torpedoplane designed by Admiral Fiske as a weapon wherewith to attack the German fleet within its defenses at Kiel.

And yet the modernness on which Norfolk so evidently prides herself is not something to be lightly valued.  Fine schools, fine churches and miles of pleasant, recently built homes are things for any American city to rejoice in.  Therefore Norfolk rejoices in Ghent, her chief modern residence district, which is penetrated by arms of the Elizabeth River, so that many of the houses in this part of the city look out upon pretty lagoons, dotted over with all manner of pleasure craft.  Less than twenty years ago, the whole of what is now Ghent was a farm, and there are other suburban settlements, such as Edgewater, Larchmont, Winona and Lochhaven, out in the direction of Hampton Roads, which have grown up in the last six or eight years.  The Country Club of Norfolk, with a very pleasing club-house on the water, and an eighteen-hole golf course, is at Lochhaven, and the new naval base is, I believe, to be located somewhat farther out, on the site of the Jamestown Exposition.

Norfolk is well provided with nearby seaside recreation places, of which probably the most attractive is Virginia Beach, facing the ocean.  Ocean View, so called, is on Chesapeake Bay, and there are summer cottage colonies at Willoughby Spit and Cape Henry.  On the bay side of Cape Henry is Lynnhaven Inlet connecting Lynnhaven Bay and River with Chesapeake Bay.  From Lynnhaven Bay come the famous oysters of that name, now to be had in most of the large cities of the East, but which seemed to me to taste a little better at the Virginia Club, in Norfolk, than oysters ever tasted anywhere.  Perhaps that was because they were real Lynnhavens, just as the Virginia Club’s Smithfield ham is real Smithfield ham from the little town of Smithfield, Virginia, a few miles distant.  On the bank of the Lynnhaven River is situated the Old Donation farm with a ruined church, and an ancient dwelling house which was used as the first courthouse in Princess Anne County; and not far distant from this place is Witch Duck Point, where Grace Sherwood, after having been three times tried, and finally convicted as a witch, was thrown into the river.